MP says govt sold Lake Malawi to Mota Engil

Malawi Parliament was nearly thrown in turmoil on Monday afternoon after Mzimba West MP Harry Mkandawire claimed the government has sold Lake Malawi to Mota Engil, a Portuguese construction company with close links to the President Peter Mutharika family.

Mkandawire: Triggered the matter

Mkandawire said he had evidence to show that the government of Malawi had given a 40 year concession to run the affairs of Lake Malawi.

The legislators were debating on a Land bill.

Cabinet ministers, including Leader of the House George Chaponda, Chief whip Henry Mussa and Information minister Patricia Kaliati were on their feet, refuting the allegations as unfounded and baseless.

A report which Mkandawire presented to the House recently showed that former president Bingu wa Mutharika had a cut of 10 per cent as commission on the company’s lucrative government contracts, a claim denied by the government of Peter Mutharika, brother to the late president.

However, the determined but soft spoken Mkandawire, said he had all the documentation and evidence to prove his point to which Speaker Richard Msowoya asked him to bring all the evidence on Tuesday.

However, opposition members of parliament, who included Zomba Changalume MP John Chikalimba and Dedza east MP Juliana Lunguzi wondered why the senior cabinet ministers were fast to defend Mota Engil when the parliamentarians also attacked Crown for taking a chunk of land along the M1 Road between Zalewa and Chingeni turn offs.

There was total silence from the government side.

The legislators said it was sad that most of productive land is in the hands of Asians and Burundians among others who corruptly acquire it from corrupt officials from the Lands ministry.

Mota Engil made separate cheque payments to the late president wa Mutharika personal accounts at some commercial banks from as low as K1 million (about $4 000) to as high as K10 million (about $40 000) at a time.

Among others, Mota-Engil made the cheque deposits into the late president’s personal bank account number 0140001886701 at Capital City Branch of Standard Bank.

One cheque worth K10 million was deposited into Mutharika’s Standard Bank account number 0140001886701 on March 3 2010.

On the deposit slip, the depositor only identified himself as Mota-Engil, but the signature is the same as the one on an FMB cheque number 9480 belonging to Mota-Engil. The other signature on the three cheques is for managing director Antonmarco Zorzi.

The other two cheques are numbered 12570 (worth K2.5 million) and 12571 (worth K1 million). These cheques were written on March 24 2011.

The other two cheques are numbered 12570 (worth K2.5 million) and 12571 (worth K1 million). These cheques were written on March 24 2011.

I don’t know why our MPs are wasting time bringing unwarranted issues like Harry Mkandawire has done instead of giving pressure to the President to demand speedy resolution from Chissano and Mbeki to the wangle over the ownership of Lake Malawi between Malawi and Tanzania. Why not claim that government sold the lake to Tanzania, at least this would have made some sense.

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3 years ago

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Wakunyikamwaka

We should not only protect land falling into hands of foreigners but also businesses they have taken away. I.E rearing chicken, farming vegetables and maize, selling stationery and others requiring minor capital. These should strictly be done by Malawians with smaller capital. As it is now, these Asians are not buying chicken from locals to sell in their shops for example, which means no money goes back to Malawians but everything goes back to Asians. Government and Parliamentarians, you are there to safeguard interests of Malawians. They cannot develop if the trend is allowed as above. Other countries do have… Read more »

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3 years ago

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Phiri

What did you think when Dziko liri mmanja mwa alendo

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3 years ago

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son ofLOVE

harry mk my dear one.. may God protect you i pray in jesus name….

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3 years ago

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Kenkkk

I agree with Harry 100% on this. Mots engil has total control of the lake. I visited monkey bay last year and to my surprise the whole ship yard is controlled by these Portuguese/Mozambique crooks. All ships are controlled by them and commuting between moz and Malawi. Our security and military intelligence are severely compromised. For me to go close to the ship yard, I had to seek permission from the man in charge at the ship yard who was a white Portuguese man. He allowed me to look around. They repair and maintain our shabby ships and theirs. I… Read more »

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3 years ago

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Green Leaf

Don’t we just love this cash gate!!
Keep on smiling Malawi.

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3 years ago

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Thyolo Thava

We were all told a story that late Bingu had one house in Area 47 and one Minbus as valuable assets before Atcheya handpicked him as presidential candidate in 2004.The story went on that the guy had unproductive farm in Zimbabwe where her late wife came from. I strongly suspect that the MK150 million value of assets late Bingu declared as President in 2004 was comprised of unproductive Estate in Zim , the house and minbus.The estate value could have accounted for a big portion of MK150 million land because as we all know land alone on the estate was… Read more »

We HAVE SOLD OUR COUNTRY TO FOREIGHNERS MUNTHARIKA FAMILY & & THESE PIPO ARE SELLING OUR LAKE AND OUR LAND & WE MWIANS WE ARE JUST LOOKING THIS IS FULL STUPID ALL POLITICIANS ARECJUST LOOKING & CLAPING HANDS FOR FOREIGNERS WHO ARE SELLING OUR ASSETS .WAT KIND OF RUEADERS ARE THESE ? CLaPING hands FOR FOOLS MUTCHONA’S DU U LOVE UR COUNTRY CHAPONDA?, H MUSSA? And ALL U MINISTERS? AGUDO ANGOTI MPHWIII ANTHU AKWANU AKUKOMOKAVNDI KOTA ZITUKUKO KUMWERA WAKE UP & SAY BULSHIT URE STUPID PITA WE HAVE TU SHARE THE CAKE OF COUNTRY.